August 2025

The end of August leads right into Labor Day weekend this year, so summer is essentially over with kids going back to school next week here in NY. The second half of August really cooled off in an unusual way, which has been nice. I'm sure hot and humid will make a comeback though at least once before Fall becomes official. 

Here are all the photos and videos from the month, and below are some notes about what we've been up to.

Becky: Alex's summer swim lessons ended this month, and on his last swim lesson he really showed progress in being brave and doing things that were hard for him at the beginning. It's great to see how he warms up to things with consistent effort.

Becky: In September I will be doing one day a week of Alex's program at home instead of at this school, with the help of a habilitation worker that I will train. More about that next month. In preparation, I found a horseshoe-shaped, classroom table we can use for doing some of Alex's programs/work. These tables can be expensive. But I found  one for sale that had previously been used by a local speech pathologist. It's large, but there is space in Alex's room, especially as we have been getting rid of things he doesn't use anymore. Now that his room has a cool "learning center" I feel even more inspired to get his home program going strong.

Becky: I tried to keep my political activism going this month.  I did some phone-banking, but had to miss out on a peaceful protest and some canvassing (due, in part, to one of our cars getting a flat).  But I definitely enjoy being involved, so will resume activities with For the Many or the local democrats next month.

Rob: We've managed to get a little group of people together from church who are interested in pickleball. So we got together with them a couple times this month, with the help of a new babysitter for Alex. It's fun exercise, and Alex usually does well with the babysitters.

Our town had a couple events this month that Alex enjoyed. They did a movie night, with Shrek in the park up on a projector screen. We brought our big blanket to spread out on the lawn and Alex enjoyed watching most of it when he wasn't running around in the dark. Then the town had its signature event, the annual General Montgomery Day Tractor Parade. We've missed it the past few years we have live here, but Rob and Alex went to check it out for the first time this year, and watched probably more than a hundred different kinds of tractors go by for about an hour (and we didn't stay for all of them). Alex enjoyed it, although probably not as much as he would have 6 years ago when he was obsessed with tractors. Also this month our town hosted the New York Air Show, which means all kinds of cool fighter jets are flying around for a weekend. We didn't catch much of it this time.

We went on other outings to places we visit often, including a hike at Awosting Falls, a visit to Minnewaska Lake, the Walkway Over the Hudson and nearby Children's Museum, an evening at the Woodbury Commons outdoor shopping mall with a nice ramen meal included, and we dipped our feet in the Hudson at Plum Point park. And of course several trips to libraries and other indoor places Alex likes to visit.

In other news, it's been an expensive month with car repairs and airline tickets. The Subaru got new bearings, which aren't a cheap job, along with new brakes and a new serpentine belt - all standard wear and tear repairs you expect when a car has 230k miles. Replacing the bearings made a very noticeable difference, it's much more quiet and smooth now. The C-Max got new tires and a couple other minor things. And as far as travel goes, Becky and Alex are planning a trip to Arizona for the end of October, and Rob is planning a trip to Utah and Houston at the end of September.

This month we also celebrated our 10th anniversary. And what better way to celebrate a whole decade of marriage than going out to Texas Roadhouse, where we always go to celebrate things, and eating their delicious rolls. Also, we will be celebrating with a trip to the Jersey Shore the weekend after Labor Day.